UPDATED 2021! Free your Freegal Music - Freegal App to iTunes [Your Music or MP3 Player]
UDPATE 1/21
OK - well, out of more responsibility I had to figure out a legal way to put mp3's on my son's simple mp3 player he got for Christmas this year (it's a $30 one from amazon...)
Advertised as a kid-friendly player, I knew the features included a 'drag and drop' feature for mp3's.
Now that Apple has gone the way of 'music' the instructions below (original post!) are basically ancient history, but I'll leave them here for anyone who might want to refer to them.
New instructions for 'freeing your freegal' music are as follows.
First, I am assuming that you are using an app on a mobile device to 'download' the music to that device.
1. download music (3-7 songs a week for most folks on Freegal) to your mobile device.
2. connect your mobile device to a real computer (sits on a desk or your lap, you know).
3. open up Finder or Open Device (depends on your platform)
4. find "Files" (on iPhone)
5. find the Freegal app under the Files column
6. open the drop-down selections, find the folder (mine was named a random string of numbers)
7. copy this folder to your desktop (or wherever you'd like)
8. drag and drop this folder into your Apple Music, Music Player (or your 4-year-old's MP3 player)
a. pro-tip - if you'd like to save yourself some disk space, drag and drop folder each week (With new music) into the same location and click 'yes' if you'd like to replace folder.
Enjoy. I found some fun tracks for my boy, I hope this helps you too!
Comment below with your own nuances for Android/Windows. (I'm using an ancient iMac and iOS for my references for this post.)
Happy 'Free' Music! Free your Freegal!
//
*original post*
I found out about "Freegal" - an app/service for free music downloads. Depending on your library (yes, you have to have a library card!) you can get 3 to 5 songs free each week from a large database of music.
Being that the budget has gone in the direction of feeding children, Freegal has opened up a part of me that I killed for the sake of responsibility. I really enjoy having new songs that I own - and that's exactly what Freegal gives you - free MP3's each week.
Here's the problem: if you download the music to the app, Apple has made it difficult to "Free the Freegal" music and add it to your iTunes library. There is a way around this, and I have not found an article online that gives a good step-by-step to do this.
So, I will attempt to explain how to get songs from Freegal on an iOS device to your iTunes music library.
1. Get the Freegal App (free music, seriously)
2. Download songs from the database
3. Plug iPhone into computer
4. Open iTunes
5. Select the "Apps" Tab
6. Scroll down, select the "Freegal" app from the left-hand column
7. Select the folder where your music is (as long as you have only one account, there should only be one folder)
8. Select "Save To" in the bottom right hand corner
9. Find a place you would like to save it to on your Hard Drive
10. Save
11. Drag and drop to your iTunes music library (either in the iTunes program, or the actual folder in your Hard Drive)
There you go. Also, tell me what great music you've found inside the App...I may download it next week...
Thank you so much for posting these instructions. I'll give them a try.
ReplyDeleteErin - you're welcome! Freegal is great...legal, and helps when living on a budget...so glad it's free!
DeleteEr, okay, I'm getting a little lost at step 4. Am I opening iTunes on my iPad (in which case I don't see an App tab) or on my PC (in which case I see App not as a tab, but in the left column. But clicking it doesn't seem to open a folder of Freegal music (step 7). It just shows me that I've downloaded Freegal to my PC).
DeleteMaybe I should just stick to 8 tracks and cassettes and forget about this new fangled technology.
Erin
AH! I found this on the Freegal site. The second step, below, goes between your #4 and #5 (let's call it 4.5, shall we?) Then it all falls into place.
Delete1 Plug your iOS device into your computer
2 Open up iTunes and you will see an area titled "devices" on the left hand side. Click on the device you desire to take music off of.
3 At the top of the screen you will have options like "summary, info, apps, music, movies, etc." Select "Apps."
4 From there, scroll down and select the Freegal app.
5 Once highlighted, you should view a file that contains the music downloaded from the app. (at the bottom of the page--Erin) Take that file and simply drag it to your desktop background.This will save the music to your desktop.
Now that the music is in your desktop, you can move this music into your iTunes through dragging and dropping individual songs into iTunes.
Now your music from the Freegal application is in your iTunes on your computer! From there you can move music anywhere you like!
Erin - Glad you found this. I had a tough time navigating the Freegal site and reading the large blocks of text. Maybe I should slow down a bit and just read. Thanks for posting!
DeleteThis worked great! I was wondering if there was a way to download from more than one Freegal account. I'm downloading my kids' songs on my iphone and I can't seem to get those off. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteJen,
DeleteI know your comment is ancient, but the only way I know to download from two Library cards is to have two seperate apps (my wife and I have two Library cards and two phones with Freegal app, for example).
If there's another way around this, let us know!
David
Jen - Glad you found this article. I hope more folks can free their music.
ReplyDeleteFreegal is pretty limited in it's versatility when it comes to different users. Your kids could sync their iDevices to the same computer, saving all their music in the same place. With a couple more library cards activated on different devices...wow, in our county library system - that's 15 songs a week!
Your thoughts/feedback?
P.S. - my new favorite finds on Freegal:
Shane & Shane - The One You Need
The Roots & John Legend
Pomegranates - Heaven
It's a cool service, but their website is extremely slow. It will take you a week just to grab the 3 free songs since the website is nearly impossible to navigate in any timely manner.
ReplyDeleteHi Oodle, if you have a smartphone or another smart device (tablet, etc) try the Freegal App. It works much better than anything I've experienced with the website.
DeleteThanks for posting, I love the app, but want them in my iTunes until I get a good collection built up, and even after. Loving Adele, Audio Adrenaline and Hawk Nelson to name a few right now.
ReplyDeleteLori,
DeleteI've found a way to load songs little-by-little; basically I load songs into a folder on my computer, then delete them from the Freegal app, making sure to drag songs to iTunes before I delete them from the app itself.
This keeps my Freegal app-space to a minimum on my phone as well as keeping things in iTunes organized.
I'm also careful to not "overwrite" the folder when I copy the songs. Wouldn't want to lose any of that free music.
David
HI, are you still around and able to help me out, I hope so. I am at Step 6 where I highlighted the Freegal App already from the list but I don't see anything happening as far as seeing a file or folder with music to transfer. Nothing on the right bottom to save, either O-0 Help please!. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteHi Random-String-Of-Characters-Commenter,
DeleteIf you have an updated iTunes (10 or later, I believe) there should be an option to select "Save To" - click on this, and you should see a way to save your songs to a folder on your computer.
DC
I really cannot see anything like that at all :-/ Is there a way that you can send me a screen-shot of the procedure or that I can send you one of what I see?
DeleteHi, Anonymous,
DeleteIf you make your way back to this blog post, here's a post with a screen shot in the new "Unofficial Freegal Blog" which I created:
http://
Hope it helps (we can't post pictures in comments, that is why I had to make a link).
DC
And, it would help if the link worked (copy and paste, por favor):
Deletefreeyourfreegal.blogspot.com
I finally made it, thank you so much for your patience with me, lol that was tricky! ;-)
DeleteHey, when I try to save my files to my desktop it keeps showing file could not be found. any reason why this may be happening?
ReplyDeleteAnon - without knowing your specific process, I'm not sure. If you open iTunes and follow instructions (selecting App tab, transfer files to your desired location) it should load them from Freegal. Feel free to upload a screen shot of the 'could not be found' problem here and I will try to help.
ReplyDeleteHi! I figured out the above mentioned steps on my own, (from my blood, sweat and tears of other annoying iPhone apps that don't want to easily cooperate), and got stuck at the last step. So I searched online to see if I could get help and ran into your blog. Looks like I was doing everything correctly, however, I can't find the Freegal songs on my PC. I "saved to" a folder that I created on my desktop, but there's nothing in the folder after it supposedly copies the file (songs?). The Freegal file on the right hand side looks like a file with a series of 10 numbers. I click the file, click "save to", and is says it's copying files (1 of 1) at the top. I have quite a few Freegal songs on my iPhone that I want on my PC since I don't generally use my iPhone to play music. I'm getting quite frustrated. Any idea what the heck I'm doing wrong in that last step? Please help me figure this out and free my Freegal songs!
DeleteSigned,
Frustrated Freegal Freer
Hi Fx3. (Frustrated Freegal...ah, you get it).
DeleteSo, immediately I realized something that is different in your situation: you said "PC" - which reveals that I've worked only on a Mac. However, I am familiar with PC's and only converted to Mac's about 10 years ago, just like the rest of the Millennials/Gen-Y.
So, the "saved to" folder on your desktop shows no contents. This is curious to me as well. The 10-digit number on the folder you mentioned should be your library card#.
Things you could try:
-uploading to a different location on your hard drive.
-dragging and dropping the "empty folder" to iTunes (in hopes that it has contents that are mysteriously hidden from you)
-bang head on computer and see if that frees it. (yes, that's a joke...don't do that)
Any other ideas, fellow-free-ers?
DC
DC, Unfortunately I'm sorry to admit my budget does not allow a Mac, well maybe a Big Mac, if I'm feeling extra "splurgey"! However I had tried dragging the file onto my desktop and other locations on my hard drive, into files I created, into files already created, into iTunes music library etc. But apparently I'm not allowed to do so, as the little red circle with a line through it would imply (and also I believe it to be taunting me). The 10 digit number isn't my library number. I've even changed it to something easier to search on my hard drive, however, with no success. I'd love to get these Freegal freebies off my app and into my iTunes. It looks as if I will have to stop using the "convenient" app and go back to downloading directly from the Freegal site to my PC. But it is a frickin' shame I can't get the few dozen songs I have in the app into iTunes. It's like dangling a carrot in front of a starving bunny and ripping it away right as he attempts to take a bite. Yep, it's like that!
DeleteSigned,
Fx3
I am having the same issue. When the files finish copying to any chosen location, they disappear. I have searched my PC using the 10 digit folder number, and it is simply not there. What a shame! I would have never used the ipad for this if I knew I couldn't get the songs transferred.
ReplyDeleteHmmm ....I can get everything done to the point of moving the file and it won't be moved. My 10 digit file number is correct, but when I go to move it says it can't be found. Have tried to drag onto desktop, no luck. When I hit Save To and go to Desktop it says Select Folder and then gives me the error. PC issue? Thx
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteWhen I go to my iPhone 6 Plus in the "Devices" list on the left side of iTunes, there is no "Apps" option. Only "Music, Movies, TV Shows, Books, Audio books and Tones." I have iOS 1 2.1 on the iPhone and iTunes 12.9.14.
Is there a way to get the Freegal music from my iPhone to iTunes now?
Thank you!
Luke